ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the benefits and challenges of membership for the EU and Turkey. The benefits of membership for Turkey often include consolidation of democracy, economic growth, national security, and improving societal cleavages in the country (e.g. Çarko ğ lu and Rubin, 2003; Arikan, 2006; Ye ş ilada, 2006; Barysch, 2007; Grigoriadis 2009; Müftüler-Baç and Baskan, 2011). The challenges of membership are formidable and include growing suspicion of and opposition to the EU, the institutional shortcomings of Turkey to meet requirements of the acquis, and the tendencies of the current AKP government to pick and choose how it wants to adopt EU reforms to suit its interests while pursuing a sinister political agenda. For the EU, the benefits of Turkey's membership could be economic revival, bridging the gap between Europe and the Islamic world, and strengthening of CFSP. However, such benefits do not fair well in the eyes of Turkey's opponents in the Union. For the Europeans, challenges include the impact of Turkey's membership on the EU budget, the balance of power in EU institutions, and the Europeans' fear of mass immigration from Turkey and its impact on local social order. The EU and Turkey also face foreign and security policy benefits and challenges, which are covered in Chapter 6.
